Succulent Gardening, California Style

My recent trip to Southern California was pure heaven for the succulent enthusiast. From homes and businesses to garden shops and restaurants, gardening with succulents is just a way of life out here.

Succulents, along with the occasional cacti, are found virtually everywhere, since they can grow year round without the threat of a harsh winter. You see them grown in containers and urns of all sorts, surrounding the base of trees, in towering jades — even the occasional "succulent portrait" framed and suspended vertically.

For those of us, myself included, who experience winters too harsh for most of these beauties, it's just pure succulent envy! But I found myself content to be heading home to my own garden, ready to look at it with an invigorated pair of eyes, and sink my hands in the soil.